The embodiments described herein relate to apparatus and methods for cooling electronic devices, including, for example, air flow ducts for directing cooling air flow to and/or away from an electronic device.
Data processing units, such as routers, switches, servers, storage devices, and/or components included within a core switch fabric of a data center, include electronic devices (e.g., amplifiers, signal processors, optical transceivers or the like) that generate heat during their operation. To increase the processing speed and/or processing capacity, some known data processing units include high power electronic devices, more densely-packaged electronic devices and/or the like. Accordingly, some known data processing units include forced air cooling systems to prevent overheating of the electronic devices contained within the known data processing unit.
Some known cooling systems are configured to convey cooling air across the surface of a circuit board via a cooling flow path that extends from a first side the circuit board to a second side of the circuit board. In such arrangements, however, the electronic devices disposed on or adjacent the second side of the circuit board are exposed to cooling air that has been heated as a result of flowing across the electronic devices disposed on or adjacent the first side of the circuit board. Similarly stated, with such cooling systems, the electronic devices located downstream receive cooling air having a higher temperature than that of the cooling air received by the electronic devices located upstream. Moreover, such known cooling systems do not allow the cooling air to be selectively directed toward or away from certain electronic devices (e.g., electronic devices that are more thermally-sensitive devices, electronic devices having high power consumption or the like).
Thus, a need exists for improved apparatus and methods for cooling air flow within data processing units.